Martians had landed in a town in Central Jersey no one had heard of,
killing 7,000 soldiers, then marched through the Watchung Mountains and
into the swamps of North Jersey, the broadcast reported. One of their
fearsome fighting machines straddled the Pulaski Skyway, shooting death
rays at army bombers. The invaders from the red planet would advance
upon and destroy New York City, Chicago, St. Louis and other cities.

Bob Sanders was on the scene when the broadcast aired, at Ground Zero, the Princeton-area town of Grovers Mill. He recalled the events in a compelling tale from NJ.com/The Star-Ledger.

"William Dock saw the water tower in the moonlight, thought it was a
spacecraft," Sanders, now 81, told NJ.com. "He took a couple shots at it with his
double-barreled shotgun."

Of course, as we know now, there were no space ships, no bombs, no alien hordes. The legendary Halloween hoax lives on in infamy.

What made the broadcast so convincing? "Specific local New Jersey names recurred throughout -- this was a rarity -- and provided chilling reality," Rich Phoenix, president of the New Jersey Radio Museum, told NJ.com. "Even if the audience was unfamiliar with Grovers Mill, talk of Newark, Plainfield, the Watchung Mountains, familiar highway names and many more specifics helped ram home the entire terrifying tale, complete with marauding Martians."